Aggies Get New Year's Eve Bowl Assignment

David Sandhop

12/08/2013

Texas A&M has accepted a bowl invitation to the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, Ga., and will face off against Duke of the Atlantic Coast Conference on New Year's Eve in the first meeting ever between both schools.

Texas A&M has accepted a bowl invitation to the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, Ga., and will face off against Duke of the Atlantic Coast Conference on New Year's Eve.

The first-ever meeting between Texas A&M (8-4) and Duke (10-3) will kick off at 7 p.m. (central) on Dec. 31 in the Georgia Dome, and the game will be televised nationally by ESPN. It will be the third straight bowl game for the Aggies in a
stadium that has hosted a Super Bowl. Both teams are ranked in the final regular season top 25 polls with the Aggies checking in at No. 20 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 21 (tie) in the USA Today head coaches poll, while Duke ranks No. 22 in the AP and tied with the Aggies at No. 21 in the coaches poll.

Texas A&M's invitation to the Chick-fil-A Bowl marks the 35th bowl game in program history, but it will be the first time the Aggies have played in Atlanta-based bowl(formerly the Peach Bowl). It is Texas A&M's most eastern bowl trip in more than 50 years since facing Tennessee in the 1957 Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla. Texas A&M has played in Atlanta twice previously with the Aggies splitting a pair of games with Georgia Tech in 1965 and 1966.

The Aggies will be seeking to end the season with a bowl win for the third straight year, which has never happened in program history. It's the fifth straight season that the Aggies have earned a bowl trip, and the Aggies are coming off victories
over Oklahoma in the 2013 AT&T Cotton Bowl and Northwestern in the 2011 Texas Bowl. Texas A&M has compiled a 15-19 record in its 34 previous bowl contests.